Home and business security systems have been devised under a broad number of schemes ranging from a dog that barks to ultra sophisticated and highly expensive installations designed for the protection of highly valuable property. For the most part, the systems have been dedicated to aspects of intrusion, using mechanisms designed to apprise one entity of the passage of another entity across a selected portal or vulnerable boundary.
With rising public concern over security in the home and neighborhood environments, more elaborate systems have been devised for that market wherein attempted entrance across certain portals such as windows or doors are monitored by any of a variety of mechanisms ranging from switches to, for example, ultrasonic motion detecting system techniques.
Once these devices are armed or activated to an alert state, an alarm signal will be generated on the occurrence of intrusion which is conveyed to a central control assembly located within the home or small business which then communicates with either a public law enforcement agency or a privately owned central security service facility. For these systems to be effective, they must permit legitimate exit and egress on the part of the user as well as authorized individuals, while establishing an effective armed and monitoring state during periods when such portals would not be used legitimately.
Such operation of the security system requires an understanding of arming logic on the part of the user to avoid the generation of false alarms. Where the user fails to comprehend the protocols for proper usage, a plethora of aborted alarms will render the type of service attempted to be provided unacceptably expensive. In effect, an acceptable security system for homes or small businesses must be "user friendly" to the extent that the aged and infirmed can use them as well as those who may experience difficulty in absorbing the nuances of electronic logic.
Security systems intended for the home and small business should retain a capability for accommodating a broadened range of service requirements particularly pertinent to that environment. For example, the services should be capable of generating immediate response to medical emergencies, as well as to remotely encountered confrontational emergencies such as hold-ups or the like. Further, the systems should be capable of monitoring the home environment during periods where the owners may be on vacation or away for extended periods of time. In this regard, the home should be monitored for such items as freezing pipes, lost power to furnaces and water heaters as well as to food storing freezer equipment. Flooding of basements and the like also represents the subject matter of monitoring and surveillance and, of course, the capability for surveilling the presence of smoke and fire as well as high heat must be provided.
While it is desirable to provide surveillance for all of the above enumerated aspects, such surveillance must be developed at costs commensurate with the budgets of the home owner and small business person. Further, the systems must be capable of asserting a priority over the subject matter monitored, as well as achieving a logic detection of false or misleading alarms.